Email Newsletters

Daily Photo Galleries

Traveling by Jeep, boat and foot, Tribune-Review investigative reporter Carl Prine and photojournalist Justin Merriman covered nearly 2,000 miles over two months along the border with Mexico to report on coyotes — the human traffickers who bring illegal immigrants into the United States. Most are Americans working for money and/or drugs. This series reports how their operations have a major impact on life for residents and the environment along the border — and beyond.

By Bill Vidonic

Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012, 3:34 p.m.

Freedom Area School District officials planted a hidden camera in the office of a high school health and physical education teacher to catch him snorting crushed pills and giving a student a pill to inhale, New Sewickley police said Tuesday.

“When a situation like this presents itself, it is my responsibility to fully investigate and take whatever action is necessary. That's what I did in this case in order to protect our students,” Freedom Superintendent Jeffrey Fuller said.

Upon handing in his resignation in the superintendent's office, James C. Summers, 41, of Darlington Borough was arrested and charged with drug paraphernalia possession and corruption of minors, police Chief Ron Leindecker said.

Summers remained in the Beaver County Jail, unable to post a $200,000 bond set by Beaver County Senior District Judge John Armour.

Police got information during the week of Nov. 12 about “misconduct” relating to Summers, Leindecker said, but it was too vague to pursue. Police notified the district, and officials there installed a hidden surveillance camera in Summers' office, Leindecker added.

In each of four videos, taken from Nov. 19 through Nov. 21, Summers is seen crushing and inhaling a pill through a small tube. In a fifth video, Summers crushed a pill, gave a student a tube and allowed him to inhale the substance, according to a criminal complaint written by New Sewickley Officer Tom Liberty.

The district turned over the videos to police on Friday.

On Monday, with the school closed for the first day of hunting season, police searched Summers' office and found a plastic tube and powdery residue in a drawer of Summers' desk, Liberty wrote. Leindecker said tests are being conducted to identify the substance and determine whether additional charges against Summers are warranted.

Neither Fuller nor Leindecker would say whether the student who inhaled the pill had been disciplined.

Fuller, in a statement, said a second student was involved, but he would not talk about the student.

Leindecker said police are investigating.

Leindecker said police did not ask the district to conduct surveillance on Summers. Fuller would not say whether the district received previous complaints about him.

Summers started working in the district at the beginning of the 2000-01 school year.

He served briefly as the head varsity football coach in 2008, but left before the end of the season because of health issues.

District Solicitor Matthew Hoffman said Tuesday the high school has surveillance cameras for student safety but they are not in every room.

“For employment purposes for the school, it is permissible,” Hoffman said of installing the hidden camera in Summers' office. “We don't need a search warrant to initiate that kind of surveillance. In this case, we had specific information that (Summers) was engaging in misconduct.”

Stuart Knade, chief counsel for the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, said Tuesday of the surveillance of Summers, “I have no specific knowledge of it being used in this type of situation.”

Knade said the association has lobbied the Legislature “for greater flexibility for using surveillance cameras for safety of students,” but not as a way to catch employees in wrongdoing.

Bill Vidonic is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-380-5621 or bvidonic@tribweb.com.

TribLive commenting policy

You are solely responsible for your comments and by using TribLive.com you agree to our Terms of Service.

We moderate comments. Our goal is to provide substantive commentary for a general readership. By screening submissions, we provide a space where readers can share intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information.

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Because of the volume of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers.

We value thoughtful comments representing a range of views that make their point quickly and politely. We make an effort to protect discussions from repeated comments  either by the same reader or different readers.

We follow the same standards for taste as the daily newspaper. A few things we won't tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING. Don't include URLs to Web sites.

We do not edit comments. They are either approved or deleted. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or excerpted in an article. In this case, we may fix spelling and punctuation.

We welcome strong opinions and criticism of our work, but we don't want comments to become bogged down with discussions of our policies and we will moderate accordingly.

We appreciate it when readers and people quoted in articles or blog posts point out errors of fact or emphasis and will investigate all assertions. But these suggestions should be sent via e-mail. To avoid distracting other readers, we won't publish comments that suggest a correction. Instead, corrections will be made in a blog post or in an article.

Total Promotional Solutions

A division of Trib Total Media is your one-stop-shop for all of your branded merchandise needs.

We specialize in providing quality affordable promotional products for every type of business including non-profits, schools, universities, sports teams and more. With 1000’s of products to choose from, our knowledgeable staff can help you find the perfect apparel item or product to suit your needs and budget.

Digital Sales

We offer a wide variety of traditional and new digital advertising options customized to fit your needs!

Whether you're just starting out, or you've been a keystone in the community for years, our knowledgeable staff can provide you with a customized package including online banners/advertisements, Social Media Marketing (Facebook / Twitter), Website development, Search Engine Optimization, Email Marketing solutions and much more!

Contact your local sales rep today for details, personalized proposal and a meeting to discuss how we can meet your needs.